MYSTERY PRODUCTS

It’s fascinating to see how companies use new and innovative techniques to woo the consumers. Companies today are not only coming up with new innovative products but also new marketing strategies to position their products in a new way all together, thus grabbing the consumer’s attention. When most of the companies are offering the expected, a few companies are going in the other direction by offering the unknown, which can be termed as the‘Mystery Products’.

Marketers are trying to leverage on the fact that making choices is a cumbersome process for the consumers today as they are spoilt for choices. Thus by taking up the task of making the choice for consumers it is reducing their burden and offering a different shopping experience where they just chose the product and not the design nor colour or any other specifications. The choice is made by the company.

Hipstery, a German company which sells t-shirts through its web store, where customers don’t choose the design for their t-shirts but just selects the size, make the payment & answer certain question. The Hipstery team selects a t-shirt based on the questions answered by the customers. The customer does not know what is the design, pattern or colour of the t-shirt until he receives it. The company also offers customer the option of exchanging the t-shirt if they don’t like it the first time and refund the money if it happens the second time. Thus they are providing the consumers a new shopping experience with an element of mystery & surprise and reducing their burden of making a choice.

ShoeDazzel, a Los Angeles based company sells shoe on similar line but on a monthly subscription basis and Out of the box a Singapore based beverage company offers soft drinks which are labelled ‘Anything & Whatever’ the customer does not know what flavour it is until he opens the can and drinks it. There are innumerable other companies who offer products on similar lines.

Thus the concept of ‘Mystery Products’ is nothing but selling old wine in a new bottle. It is the creation of the marketers to woo the consumers in an innovative way.

Interesting thought… just curious as to how it’d work in India where consumers want to make the most of a purchase. e.g. get to wear 3 t-shirts at least once in a week for the price of one .. or for that matter getting to taste 2-3 different soft drinks while paying only for one…

@Samrat – Hipstery has a pool of t-shirts from which it selects based on the customers profile and sends it across to them. Thus its production as i understand should be seasonal like any other company. It has to maintain the inventory of its merchandise but the main advantage is that it can send any t-shirt that matches the customers profile thus making it even more easy for the company.

The whole idea of these companies is to create an aura of mystery around their products. They have created a niche and wants to cater to specific target segment and not to the masses. A person who wants to try stuff before buying it is definitely not on their target segment as well. They cater to a very small and a niche segment.